August 30, 2006

After all the good feed backs on IDLI FAIR , let me steer you swiftly but surely to...

A classic coffee estate recipe from my Grandmother. Little background now: Coffee plants need lot of water and shade to retain the moisture. For that purpose, we usually plant Orange groves, Mango, Guava, Cashew trees,Jackfruit trees and Bamboos inbetween coffee plants. Bamboos ( Kalale` or Kanile' as we call it in Kannada) are fast growing,a foot a day, are sure favorites!

The second you feel the bamboo breeze on your face when you enter the big gate, youknow you are in the estate :D...Since some parts always have flowing water, we also grow Cardamom plants!! Where there is humidity and wetland, you can bet your last paisa on loads of big leeches! YIKES!!!! I DESPISE THEM!!!!

To make this dish in India,when Bamboos are about a foot long, you cut, chop them,soak in water for three days changing the water everyday to lessen the odor since they do have strong odor. I never ate them as a child because of that( I LOVE it now!).Every summer vacation we would be in the estate, my ajji would start on this process immediately because my mother loved it.She would use two kinds of spice powders, one with 16+ ingredients & other with 6+ ! I cannot reproduce them ,so I do the easy way.. :)

Fortunately,we have canned and sliced bamboo shoots in international section here. All you have to do is drain and cook! Ofcourse, it NEVER matches the flavor of the original.Wish I had eaten the real thing then.No matter how long you cook the bamboo shoots, they never lose their crispness which I love along with soft cooked brown chana!! Mmmmmmm!!! Slurp!!!! There is also a Ridge Gourd chutney which goes very well with Rice Rottis if you would like to try. Recipe is given below.

You always serve this with Plantation style cooked rice(anna) rottis ,also called Coorgi style akki rottis ! NOT the rice flour rotti most of us make. Coffee planters cannot live without these rottis and ofcourse,coffee with Chicory blend ! These two things are always ready to be served in every coffee planters home everyday , as sure as Death and Taxes as they say!! :D

YOU NEED:

2 Cans of Bamboo Shoots (6 ozs each)

1 Cup soaked Brown Chana

Turmeric ,Cilantro

SEASON:

1 Tbsp Oil and Ghee

1 tsp Mustard Seeds

Curry Leaves

2 Red chilles

1 tsp chopped Garlic

1 Onion chopped

Tamarind or(2 tomatoes,skip this if brown gravy is desired)

MASALA POWDER: Roast and Grind;

3 tbsp Coriander Seeds

2 tsp Cumin Seeds

2-3 Dry Red Chillies

1 tsp Fenugreek seeds (Methi)

1-2 tsp Peppercorns

1" Cinnamon (Dalchini)

2 tsp Rice

COCONUT PASTE:To grind without roasting;

3 tbsp Dry or fresh Coconut

1 tsp Poppy Seeds

2 tsp Dalia ( chutney dal)

1/4 Onion

Curry and cilantro leaves

1 small garlic

HOW TO:

1. Pressure cook bamboo and Chana with 1-2 cups water ,turmeric, until soft but not mushy.Roast and pd masala , keep aside.Use only the amount of pd you need to suit your taste.Grind coconut paste without roasting with some water, keep aside.

2. Season with above ingredients, when onion is brown, add cooked bamboo mixture, Cilantro, and 2-3 tsp or more of masala pd,tamarind juice or tomatoes,salt. Boil.

3. When you see the oil on top, turn down the heat to the minimum. Add coconut paste, simmer gently until raw smell of coconut goes and gravy thickens.

4. Tastes better the next day ! Serve with akki rottis. Recipe below!!

Cook 2 cups of long grain rice like you usually cook. Cool the rice and knead with 1/2-1 cup of rice flour or as much as you need to make a firm non sticky dough with 1 tsp salt until you get a big firm ball. If sticky, add more rice flour but too much flour makes it tough.When done correctly, it should puff like phulka, crisp outside and soft inside! Divide into 6-7 rounds.

Heat a tava (Henchu). Meanwhile, take a plastic or non-stick foil like I do, press the round on top to make

6" diameter rotti as shown. I spray oil on foil first to spread easily,but traditionally no oil is used at all. They use little water to dip their hands to make rottis which is hard for me to do.Place them on a clean towel until you are ready to bake.

Bake on tava until you see the brown spots ,flip and cook the other side. I cook until halfway done ,cool and keep them in a tortilla warmer. When ready to eat, I place a grill on top of the burner directly on high heat, place a roti until it puffs up and little crispy. Serve immediately with gravy and ghee:)

Here's the Ridge Gourd Chutney or Heerekai chutney in Kannada for Rice Rottis:

Another dish from my grandmother which goes very well with Akki rottis.Whole fresh ridge gourd is chopped,cooked and ground with spices and yogurt. Garnished with cilantro and raw chopped onion. Yes! I said raw chopped Onions.YUM!!

How To Make This Chutney:

Chop and cook one ridge gourd with skin and all in little water until soft and cool it.Add some salt and put it in the blender.Heat a pan and fry 2 tsp channa dal, 1 tsp Urad dal, 2 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp Cumin seeds, 2-3 green or red chillies.Grind all the above with 1/4 cup coconut, 1-2 slices of raw onion, 1 garlic, few cilantro, few curry leaves,1 tbsp yellow roasted chana dal (Hurigadale) and 1/4 cup or more plain yogurt to a smooth paste.

Pour into a bowl,adjust the salt and add 1/2 finely chopped sweet onion and cilantro.

55 comments:

I have read abt estates in novels and seen them in some movies.. but never been there nor tasted a dish made of bamboo shoots. A very different recipe..an interesting one too.Thanks for sharing the recipe and ur thoughts abt coffee estate...

Looks lovely Asha! Though the akki rotis do seem like quite a bit of work for a novice like myself. I've never made anything with bamboo - will definitely give the palya a try - can it be eaten with regular rotis too (or dosas)?

Priya, thanks!We use only the baby bamboo shoots when they are just out of the ground! Once they are more than a foot,they are tough enough to build houses!! Yes, they are very easily available US in any grocery or chinese stores in cans.

Thank you Pavani, glad to share the best kept secret recipe from the estates! They are saltishly savoury and absorb any masala easily and crunchy and juicy to bite.

Definitely Nee, you could eat this palya with any rice bread Idli,dosa etc.or even may be chapatis! We always serve with akki rotti though which is not hard if you make them more than once! Hope you will give it try :)

I love bamboo shoots Asha. But my husband can't even stand the smell of it. So after my mariage, I stopped cooking them. Only when I go to my mom's place, I get to eat them :(. Your dish looks very lovely. Something that I would love to eat. The rottis are my favourite. I make them often.

Asha, the bamboo shoot curry is very new to me..i havent tasted them at all..but the photos looks so good that feel like having them stright...akki roti, i learnt to make them when i was in blore..WOW..what a lovely dish asha..thanks for sharing...

Thanks Shankari! Our plantation laborers used to gather red ants and used to fry them to eat, did you know that??!!YUP!! all kinds of weird peeps in our land. NO!! WE DIDNOT eat ants,just bamboo shoots !! :D

Krithika, DO NOT remind me of idlis for a while! I feel like they are chasing meeeeee....:)Sure why not, tell me where and when for the fair..just kidding!!!

I really hope you will try this palya Latha, it's delicious..not saying this because it's mine..I mean it ,do try :)You can use your own masala if you like,flavor is in the combo..

AWWW...Shilpa! I wish I could send some to you..I mean it...Canned,sliced bamboo doesn't smell at all,but has SOME flavor like the real thing.Try it, sometimes a girl has to do what a girl has do, You know!! Cook it and see he can take a bite too!He might like it!Arvind, like my mom,is also a planter's kid from 'UDAYA RAVI' estate near Sakleshpura, so he loooves it! Hope you will try! :)

Sudha, I am happy to share with you.It's good hear that atleast you have tasted akki rotti like mine before.I love them, very old world!! Aren't they?

Hey Asha, I love your blog.....and yes i will post more recipes....i've been so busy with guests lately, i have loads of recipes to share but barely enough time to sit and type it out. Please bear with me for some more time, will definitely post soon.

Asha, Thanks for dropping by my blog... and the biggest co-incidence is that I have been bugging a Kodava friend to get me her mother's recipe for akki-rotti... thanks.. that saved me a lot of time and trouble.. bamboo shoots arent easy to come by in my neck of the woods, but I did have a good lust after reading your entry!

And your recipe for Roti Canai tasted awesome.. I used to love that when I used to live in Singapore (it was called Roti-prata there)... mine turned out quite dry, not fluffy at all... any suggestions on how to improve it next time??

I tried your Kari-Ayam (with Roti Canai) for dinner... being a veggie, i used paneer instead of chicken.. the result was quite good...

Hello MT, Glad you got to visualise, that's exactly what I was trying to do!! :) This rotti is crisp and soft at the same time,good to scoop up all the gravy...YUM!! Try ithem.

Hi Cyberkitty, experimenting with the unfamiliar dishes are most fun, isn't it? Take few hrs. one day and make it, see if you like the new sensation! My next post will be Chicken Satay from Indonesia and Malaysia which I have never tried before!! Hope you will try ! :D

Welcome Vidya!nice to meet you!!You are the only one who really tried my recipes and commented!! Thank you so much for that :)For Roti Canai, you could add 2 or more tbsp butter,2 tbsp of condensed milk and little more baking pd to make it soft.And lot of layers to be soft, ofcourse!Mine also little dry anyway,got scared of 7 tbsp of butter I was supposed add as in the book!Glad you liked Kari Ayam, add 1 tsp lemon grass next time as I was adviced by real M'sians.I grew up as a vegetarian, somewhere along the way, I converted!! Life happens :D

Hi Shynee, thanks! I guess we are alike in many ways. Malabar region I think has tea estates, isn't it?I am not a Kodava, but mother and husband are coffee planters kids.So lot of similarities with Coorgis. I have been to OOTY tea estates, loved it!!Thanks again for visiting, neighbour!!

Thanks Linda, I am so glad you liked it. I thought why not share some of the my childhood and recipes with such wonderful group of ladies !! I consider myself fortunate when I come across somebody's mom's & grandma's recipes, keep them close to my heart!!

Welcome to my blog Deepa! Happy to know you, and thank you! I will come by your's for sure. Hope you will try the recipes :)

Thanks Lera,glad you liked them and hope you will try some of them too :)

Welcome to my blog Nabeela! I love traditional recipes, always looking out for them in other's blogs too ! Let me know how they came out so I can improve if needed! I am really proud of some of my grandma's recipes and very happy to share them!!Thank you for visiting...

Such a unique recipe, Asha. I love bamboo shoots pickle that my MIL gets from a Mangalore store in Bangalore (That rhymes!). Would love to try out this curry when I lay my hands on fresh bamboo next time.

Thank you for the easy to follow akki roti recipe. I made it in 20 minutes after coming from work. It was a big hit in our family. It was soft and puffed up like you said. Please post more recipes from Coorg.

I loved reading about plantations, especially after my trip a few days ago. I did a lot of walking around, asking questions, saw those orange trees inbetween the coffee plantations, the pepper climbing furiously on the silver oaks, the cardamom plants....and your post just takes me back to all of it -it's indeed a beautiful life...and yes we too make bamboo shoot pickles-called mahanikazhangu or something like that, but i used to always screw up my nose when that jar was brought out :)

Welcome Nandita! thank you and yes! Estates are beautiful, but if you are city bred, you feel like running away after a week :) My mom would make us spend 2 months, every summer vacation!!Glad you got to see what I was trying to explain!! I will make bamboo pickle next time I get my hands on that canned bamboo!!

OH! if you ever travel btn Belur and Moodigere, on the left after few miles from Belur, when you see 'KOGODU', that's our estate and it goes almost upto 'Cheekana Halli', next estate! Look out for that!!

first time i checked out your site! the akki roti sure is authentic coorg! i shall be able to post a recipe for 'pandi curry' which is a fab combination for akki roti!

talking about kogodu... had been there in winter... it is amazingly beautiful. in kodagu proper, there is only one place that i could find which prepared authentic coor food. it is not a family place but we can parcel it . it is worth it. it is called 'westside'.. something or the other, best to ask the local waiters or taxi drivers!!!

Hi does anyone know of a company called Sarthi which sells bamboo shoot pickle...don't know if it is out of B'lore.A friend has been searching this for 15 years.Something her late father always brought back. I want to get it for her

I am also from Coorg. Thank you very much for the recipes. I tried akki roti and chutney. It came out well...( family comments). Bamboo shoots are available once in a year, usually during rainy season. I have heard that selling of bamboo shoots is banned........

Hey thanks for the menu, I had fresh kalale in hand and was wondering how to go about. Thanks for the wonderful menu it was good.The kalale felt kind of crispy, guess thats how it should be.I believe we can make pickles too, any idea.

Hi Jai, Kalale always has a crispy bite to it even though it's cooked well, that's the beauty of it. Yes, we can make Pickle too, just add the same ingredients to it as regular pickle you make. I have a recipe here. Kalale pickle might not last for a long time, keep in the fridge and use it within 15 days. Enjoy! :)

Thanks Coorg and Shashi, love Bamboo shoots. My grandmother's place has fresh ones which she uses often which is a 3 day process. We get Bamboo shoots in cans here in USA which doesn't have much flavor but something is better than nothing, right? :D

The insides of the bamboo are rich in tabishir (persian) or banslochan (hindi - literally, bamboo eyes).Traditionally in N India, expecting and lactating mothers were advised banslochan, good for bones and for absorption of calcium etc. My mother in law had them all- along during her six pregnancies. She never had backache or osteoporosis or fibroid. She died recently at the age of 90.

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